Here’s some photos from yesterday (Nepal 17 March 2009), where Maoist protesters - or whatever they were - pretty much closed down all central parts of Kathmandu. Officially, a protest program against the president who they say have made a “constitutional coup”. Well, whatever their official explanation are, why trust them anymore? The last couple [...]

Things have been happening fast here in Nepal the last two days. (Never thought I would be saying that!) A few hours after I wrote the previous blog post here (Nepal’s Maoists: Helpless in Power), things really started happening. I’ll not go into great detail since the big news media have it all covered, but [...]

The other day I was riding a bus and we got pulled over by a traffic cop. A big argument ensued between the cop and the driver. Eventually half the bus passengers were hanging out their windows, arguing with the poor young traffic cop standing there in the baking sun. And it made me realize [...]

So, yesterday my friend and journalist colleague, Rishi Dhamala, was released from prison here in Nepal. He’d spent a couple of month on charges of involvement in terrorism(!) but in the end the police didn’t produce a shred of evidence! He’s always blamed the Maoist government to be behind his (political?) arrest, said it was [...]

A controversial question here in Nepal. Or rather, the answer is controversial: Was Buddha born in Nepal?
Some time last year, I had the pleasure of participating in an online debate about the subject, and I had the honour of being banned from the discussion because I pointed out that Nepal didn’t exist at the time [...]

Well, 5 months have passed since the Maoists of Nepal took charge of governing Nepal. And increasing disillusionment seems to be setting in among voters and a population who has been hoping for positive change in the country. “Failure to increase opportunities in line with expectations is producing growing tension.” This is actually a sentence [...]